November 11, 2015

Energy Hook Mini-Update: Steam Controller Support

Just got my hands on my Steam Controller a few days ago and after a little head banging managed to get it working to my satisfaction in game. It takes some getting used to, but I think it's the best way to play Energy Hook now - expressive analog movement on the left stick and rapid looking around on the right track pad. I've added left shoulder wall-running and track-pad-clicking jump jets so your thumb only has to leave the track-pad for tricks.

It's important to remember that you should use Big Picture Mode when using your Steam Controller - otherwise it will go into mouse-and-keyboard emulation mode when playing and be rubbish.

Also, you can adjust the responsiveness of the track pad with the Camera Sensitivity slider in the pause menu.

Speaking of sliders, I added a field-of-view slider. On the one hand, this is important, because some people sit right next to their monitors and some people sit ten feet away, and the people sitting close need a wider FOV than the ones sitting far away for it to look right-ish. On the other hand, I worry that players will set the FOV as wide as possible because, "Hey! I can see more!" not realizing that makes the game look less cinematic/dramatic (and lowers framerate to boot). But I guess I'll just have to trust you!

And here are a few other things that made it into this build:

You can turn the follow cam off completely - this is nearly unplayable with a dual stick gamepad but with mouse or the Steam Controller can give you more control. That's in the pause menu.

You may have noticed the new achievement icons! Achievements need a little tuning still but almost there!

New music track by Brian Luzietti! - and now the music shuffles instead of playing the same song over and over on a given level.

Game detects whether you're playing with gamepad or mouse+kb and tutorializes appropriately.

There was too much friction on walls, sometimes sucking the life out of your jumps. I believe it's now as low as I can make it without writing my own physics engine.

The Games

Jamie's Bragging Rights

The best superhero games of all time Game Informer Top five games of all time Yahtzee CroshawTop five superhero games of all time MSNBCTop 100 PS2 games of all time Official Playstation 2 Magazine1001 Games You Must Play Before You DieNomination for Excellence in Gameplay Engineering Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

Penny Arcade PAX 10 Award Nominated for XBLA Best Original Game Nominated for XBLA Best Co-Op Game